Premier League of Football League?

It’s an interesting debate and one that could rumble on and on without ever getting a definitive answer but are Wigan Athletic better off in the Championship than we are in a league where we’ve reached our peak and can progress little further?

Well we certainly wouldn’t be better off financially, that goes without saying. However, most football fans attend on a Saturday afternoon in the hope of seeing their beloved team pick up three points and then go out to celebrate afterwards. All latics fans seem to do these days is go out sulking and dissecting another defeat and contemplating the thought of relegation for the first time in nearly two decades.

The question is, what good is it doing the club getting beat seemingly every weekend and struggling to stay in the division when we could be a division lower, being a bigger fish in a much smaller pond and finding wins easier to come by? It doesn’t necessarily work like that though, as the likes of Charlton, Southampton, Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United and Bradford City would be quick to remind you (Blimey, they like relegation cake in Yorkshire!!)

Being relegated brings with it its own problems, not least the huge drop in TV revenue. Squads get ripped apart by clubs in the division you’ve just departed, who eye up your best assets. Crowds also drop as it becomes harder to attract fans to games against Doncaster and Barnsley (I’ve got it in for Yorkshire today!) than it does Manchester United and Liverpool.

The club is in a sound position financially and I dare say if we did suffer relegation we’d arguably be in a healthier state than any club ever to have been relegated from the Premier League in its 20-year history. Again though, that doesn’t guarantee that all in the garden will be rosy.

The hope would be that the club would have a season to rival that amazing one in 2004-05 where everyone is brushed aside with relative ease and those Saturday post-match trips to the pub would be upbeat affairs contemplating the thought of promotion to the top division back among England’s elite! Hang on – we’ve been there and didn’t like it!

It’s very difficult to decide between Premier League or Championship and ultimately it’s all a matter of personal opinion and what you’d rather see on a Saturday afternoon. I don’t think anyone would rather see us welcoming Doncaster to the DW on a Saturday afternoon than Manchester United, although I guess some would simply to avoid the usual four or five-goal trouncing we usually suffer against United.

It’s fair to say that the Premier League has changed massively since our arrival seven years ago. The prime example is Manchester City. For years we were their bogey team and regularly went to Eastlands and surprised a few. In comes a wealthy sheikh with a gigantic pot of cash and suddenly trips to Eastlands are all about keeping the score down. I, for one, refused to go to Eastlands this season for this very reason. It’s just not football and is not what football should be about.

If you look at the crowds issue at the DW (is that a can of worms you can hear opening?) that’s another problem we’d be presented with should we suffer the dreaded ‘R’ word. Being in the best league in the World should make it easier to attract fans and therefore the fan base should grow faster the longer we stay in the top flight. Relegation would make it tougher. Season tickets would be harder to sell and the cost would probably go up into the bargain, due to the loss in TV revenue. Plus I’m not even sure you’d be able to give tickets away for Wigan v Doncaster (I think I’d better stay away from that part of the country for a while!)

That last paragraph probably sounds a bit far fetched and arrogant when you consider Doncaster are a club of similar size to Wigan Athletic and have had a similar rise up through the leagues to us over the last decade or so. But the simple fact is our regular fans and those that come when they feel like it have got a little used to see English football’s elite turn up at the DW these days, so it goes without saying that we’ll suffer in that respect.

It’s my personal view that we’re better off where we are. Yes we get some tonkings and some inept performances in the Premier League, but the same is possible a league below, just a bit less often.

Something else I’ll say about the Premier League (and it’s something I’ve never experienced before promotion in 2004) is that every goal you score and every point you pick up matters ten-fold. Some of the celebrations in the Premier League days at the DW have been quite incredible, last season against W*st H*m being easily the best.

What would happen in the Championship? Lots of ‘home bankers’ where we’re expecting to turn a side over. We score, everyone gets up with a quick “yay well done lads” and sits back down on their hands. Whereas in the Premier League we’ve got our friends from Horwich coming up in a couple of weeks and I know for a fact any goal scored against that lot will be celebrated properly!! That’s the kind of experience I want.

Ultimately what we’ve got to remember is that the club is being run properly. People seem to want us to go out and spend millions to try and compete with the very best. Well I’m sorry but it just doesn’t work like that any more and you’ve only got to look at the likes of Sunderland to see where that can get you.

Sunderland fans regularly boast at the number (and quality) of players they sign every single summer since being taken over by American tycoon Ellis Short. Where has it got them? Last season they finished just 8 points above relegated Birmingham and had they not had an easy three points on the final day of last season they would have finished just two points above Wigan Athletic.

Now correct me if I’m wrong but I know what club I’d rather be supporting. If Ellis Short decided to leave Sunderland tomorrow that club would descend into chaos, and the same could be said for the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City too. Latics, meanwhile, are in such a healthy position nowadays that if Dave Whelan were to depart, there would still be a Wigan Athletic and it would still be a club run in the way all football clubs should be run.

For fans moaning post-Aston Villa that we’re not good enough etc (I was one at the time, mind you!) a reality check is needed. This isn’t a league about who is the best football club with the best footballers, it’s a league about who has the wealthiest owner and can spend the largest amounts of cash. Sunderland have proven to those without a billionaire owner that there's simply no point trying to compete with the big boys. It's better to try and survive by spending what you've got coming in and no more.

I wanted us to go to Aston Villa yesterday and win as much as the rest did. We lost because we didn’t play well rather than anything else, but ultimately we have to be realistic and say that our next fixture against B**ton is the one with everything to play for. In fact I’d say our next six fixtures, which are all winnable, are the ones that we should be looking forward to as Wigan fans and ones where we can accurately asses how well (or otherwise) we’re doing on the pitch.

I haven’t answered the question from my opening paragraph because it’s simply a matter of opinion as to which league we’re better off in. Me personally, I’m happy seeing us defying the odds season after season and showing that you don’t have to spend tens of millions of pounds just to survive among the big boys. Games like the one against Villa happen and people need to realise that, get on with it and then look forward to the next game.

When all is said and done I’d rather have it the way we’ve got it because I know full well that no matter what ridiculous amounts of money other clubs are spending just to try and keep up with the big guns, we’ll carry on doing things our way, which is the way it should be done.

There will always be a Wigan Athletic.

Progress With Loyalty

Well it’s been another great day to be a Wigan Athletic fan. Since the news first broke a few days ago the majority of Wigan fans have suffered sleepless nights at the thought of losing our young, promising, much sought-after manager.

Personally I never once doubted Roberto would stay. Why? Because he IS Wigan Athletic. He lives and breathes the football club. Were it not for this football club he could be leading a simple life back in Spain and may not even be involved in football. Roberto himself knows this and therefore he has incredible ties to the club and indeed to the town of Wigan.

Many people connected with Aston Villa will be disappointed but it’s no slur on them that Roberto is staying put. No one doubts Villa are a far bigger club that Wigan are or ever will be. The fact is that the job he has at Wigan has only really just begun.

He’s always talked of a five-year plan for the club and even today, hot on the heels of announcing he is staying, he was talking about improving the training facilities, improving the squad and making sure the club moves forward and makes progress. That, to me, indicates a man that has had those thoughts ever since that great day at Stoke and it’s all he’s thought about ever since. To not even discuss the Aston Villa job with Randy Lerner backs up that theory.

I’ve heard a few Swansea fans criticise him and his supposed lack of loyalty but I think that’s rather harsh. Yes he loved Swansea City and spent a considerable time there as a player and a manager but his connections to Wigan Athletic are far greater and he simply couldn’t turn down the chance to take over the reigns at the club that helped to make him who is he today. I find it hard to accept that Swansea fans cannot see or accept this to be perfectly honest.

Looking at the Villa offer, it would have been a huge step forward for Roberto. A bigger club, bigger transfer budget, bigger wage budget, higher expectations and ambitions, etc. That’s all well and good, but the minute he walks through the door at a club like that he has to start a clean slate and win over the fans, the board and, ultimately, the owner.

In choosing to join Wigan in the first place he instantly knew what the club was about and everyone connected with the club knew exactly what he was about. All that legwork was done, and that’s half the battle. Could you imagine Roberto taking the Villa job and having results like a 9-1 loss at Spurs, 8-0 loss at Chelsea or the two horrendous results we had at the start of last season (0-4 v Blackpool and 0-6 v Chelsea)? He would be out of the door before the full time whistle had sounded.

Throughout the whole of the last two seasons Dave Whelan has backed Roberto to the hilt stating that, even if the club are relegated, he has a job here for life if he wants it. That’s the sort of backing a manager needs and, other than his ties to the club, it’s the main reason I feel he didn’t even consider joining Aston Villa. 

Furthermore, he’s only 37 for God’s sake!! Since he became a manager at Swansea in 2007 his stock has risen season by season and I don’t doubt he’ll get better as a manager over the remainder of his days with Wigan. With that in mind, and age on his side, he won’t be short of bigger and better job offers in years to come and this too is a big factor in him staying put I feel. And who knows, his next job offer could well be from a club bigger than Aston Villa.

For now though, he loves the challenge that he's faced with of improving the club from top to bottom, changing the philosophy, the style of play and eventually leaving us far better than when he found us. He regularly talks of a top ten finish and has even hinted about European qualification. Given what he's achieved so far in trimming the wage bill but keeping the club in the top division, you wouldn't back against him achieving his goals before he moves on to bigger and better things.

One thing I will add into the mix is that football is a crazy business. At half time against W*st H*m a few weeks ago he was a Championship manager and a small number of Wigan fans were calling for his head. One fan even had to be escorted out of the DW Stadium after throwing his season ticket at Roberto! But we turned it all around against the odds and won 3-2 followed by that massive win at Stoke and suddenly a game and a half later Roberto is being linked with all the top jobs in Europe! It’s a crazy game at times.

My hope now is that the small number of fans that have done nothing but criticise him and call for his head for two years realise just how lucky we are to have him in charge of our football club and start to back him a bit more. In his two seasons in charge, average attendances have dropped from 18,500 to just shy of 17,000.

I don’t doubt that the economic climate is a lot to blame for that, but I do know quite a few fans that say “I won’t go again while he’s in charge” That’s just not right and we, as a club, can ill afford to be losing fans in such numbers for reasons such as that.

Just a last word of tribute towards the Chairman, Dave Whelan. He too has been heavily criticised throughout Roberto’s time in charge, unfairly in my view. The way he has acted and spoken this week has been absolutely out of this World. He’s been honest, up front and dignified throughout and he deserves a lot of respect for the way he’s handled the whole situation.

Deep down I don’t feel the Chairman felt for one minute that Roberto would leave so soon into his five-year plan and he hinted as such in his various press interviews this week. He could never go as far as saying Roberto wouldn’t leave, he had to wait until it was all confirmed, but I think he knew all along.

And so on to Friday, when the fixtures for Wigan Athletic’s seventh Premier League season are announced. I’m so pleased we don’t have to go into that days events thinking more about who is going to be our next manager than who our first fixture is against. Instead, we can look forward knowing that OUR Roberto is still in charge and still fighting for the club he loves.

Progress with loyalty

We did it…again!

Well, here we are. A few days have passed since Sunday’s marvellous win at Stoke and it still hasn’t quite sunk in that in ten weeks from now little Wigan Athletic will be embarking on a SEVENTH successive year in English football’s elite league.

I must admit that despite banging the positive drum over the past few weeks about our survival chances, there were times on Sunday when it felt like our number was being called and our time was up. The number of times I heard a score coming in from another ground that did us no favours whatsoever was unbelievable.

I’d spent countless hours on the BBC’s Premier League predictor in the lead-up to the game and I therefore had memorised every possible permutation that could arise, including latics losing to Stoke but still staying up! And as each goal went in at the other grounds, people around me asked “where does that leave us?”

^ This is actually me!!!

Like the sad person that I am I knew exactly where each and every goal left us, whether it was points, goal difference or goals scored, I knew. It meant so much to me that I didn’t want to be stood behind the goal at Stoke not knowing whether we were up or down and waiting for someone sat behind me that I’d never met before to find out via his radio!

In the end, latics pushed forward and got the all-important goal which meant that we’d taken care of our fate ourselves and results elsewhere didn’t matter as much. At full time I remember muttering stupid lines such as “well a draw would have done” and “we’ve actually finished sixteenth above Wolves!” Who cares!! We’d survived and that was all that mattered.

So what does it all mean, to the club, and to the fans? Well, put simply, it means everything. While we’re only a small club, in a small town with a relatively small fan base, to simply survive in that division for a SIXTH time is truly remarkable. Just like many Blackpool fans would have told you a year ago, to just have one season at it would be something special, but what Wigan Athletic have achieved since 2004 (and earlier for that matter) is enough to leave you speechless. I personally don’t think we, as a club, get anywhere near the amount of credit we deserve for that.

Some idiot decided to try and ruin my celebrations in town on Sunday night by saying: “What are you celebrating for? You haven’t won anything, you finished near the bottom!” That, for me, indicates someone who hasn’t got the first idea about sport and certainly no idea about football. Roberto Martinez himself summed it up well in interview by saying “for us it’s the equivalent of winning a trophy” I think that quote sums it up perfectly.

And while I’m on the subject, what a man our manager is. He’s taken a fair amount of flack over the past couple of seasons and it’s a measure of the man that he’s just taken it all on the chin, stuck to what he believes in and got on with the job. There’s many a manager would have either given in to the demands of the fans and changed his style of play or even walked away from his job, but not Roberto.

For a man so young and still so inexperienced I find that remarkable. He’s never once doubted his beliefs in his style of play, or that he’ll keep his team in the division. Yes he’s still got things to learn and yes we need more goals in the team, but it’s a work in progress and let’s not forget, his remit every season is to be better than at least three other managers, three other teams…so far, so good on that score.

Going forward now the club has got a great opportunity to strengthen its position. The wage bill has been trimmed significantly these past two seasons, but the quality of the product has got better. That’s no mean feat and if the club can add a regular goalscorer (Conor Sammon could be that man) and some competition for places in positions such as left-back and down the flanks we’ve got ourselves a squad that can really make an impact and surprise a few teams.

You’ve only got to look at the last third of the season. As soon as we hit February and we had a fully-fit squad to chose from, take out a couple of bad displays against Manchester United and Sunderland and you’ve got an excellent set of results that a team in the top six would be proud of. In fact, since February, latics picked up 20 points from 14 games. That’s the sort of ratio that, over a season, makes you a European contender.

Now I’m not wildly predicting that we’re going to go from relegation fodder to European football overnight (only Leeds United fans think like that!!) but what I am getting at is that when everyone’s fit and pulling in the same direction, you never know what’s achievable in this division.

That for me is the next step. Roberto often talks of consistency. If he, as the manager, can bring a bit of that to the club then next season could be an interesting one. It’s gone largely unnoticed because of the significance of Sunday’s win but at Stoke we won back-to-back Premier League games for the first time under Martinez. That stat alone is a big reason why we’ve been fighting it out at the wrong end of the table for so long.

Finally, I must pay tribute to latics fans. I said it in my blog post-Blackpool but I feel it must be said again. Although there were some nervous folk on Sunday, the attitude of each and every supporter at the game was absolutely superb. Every single fan was right behind the team from the first whistle to the last and yet again I feel it made a massive difference.

There were fans that missed out on tickets that would have loved to have been part of that and part of what was ultimately a great day, but they were there in spirit and the cheers from Wigan could be heard in Stoke when Hugo nodded in that late winner!

It’s what being a fan of club like Wigan Athletic is all about because you could see what it meant to each and every latics player at full-time on Sunday. They’re not the highest paid players in the Premier League by any stretch of the imagination. They play for the fans, not for the wage packet. Because without the fans this football club wouldn’t be the great football club that it is.

We get knocked down, but we get up again…

…you’re never gonna keep us down!

Well it’s hard to know where to start after a weekend where the phrase “a rollercoaster of emotions” doesn’t even come close to describing what latics fans went through. Not just on Sunday, but also on Saturday, before Wigan had even kicked a ball.

Throughout Saturday afternoon, with games taking place that affected Wigan’s own survival chances, our relegation rivals went behind, levelled and went in front seemingly every five minutes. I personally had to leave the house at 1.30pm as I couldn’t take the stress of it all…and my team wasn’t even playing!

To say results ended up going against us is something of an under-statement. Blackburn got an unlikely point at home to newly-crowned Premier League Champions, Manchester United. Meanwhile, Blackpool and Wolves both picked up wins to put added pressure on latics going into Sunday’s crunch match.

When latics quickly found themselves 2-0 down in the first half against the Hammers you’d have been forgiven at half time for feeling as though it was all over. Our time was up, our Premier League journey had run its course and the dreaded ‘R’ word was but 45 minutes away.

But this isn’t any ordinary football club, this is Wigan Athletic we’re talking about here. Giving up simply isn’t an option. The introductions of Victor Moses and Conor Sammon at half time gave the players and the crowd the lift and the belief that they needed to turn things around.

No sooner had Rob Green picked the ball out of the net following Charles N’Zogbia’s wonder free-kick, Green was doing it again when Conor Sammon cut inside a defender from Ben Watson’s through ball and slotted calmly beyond the ‘keeper to pull things level.

With Birmingham losing at home to Fulham, a point was enough to keep Wigan’s survival chances alive going into the last game at Stoke. But Wigan didn’t stop at that. The spirit, commitment and desire the players showed to go and get a winner was enough to take your breath away.

Rob Green’s goal led a charmed life and it felt as though we’d have to go to Stoke needing a win to even give us half a chance of survival. However, like the true prizefighter we are, we found that extra inch, that extra bit of energy and with just seconds left on the clock Charles N’Zogbia’s second of the afternoon sent the DW Stadium into celebrations that are simply indescribable.

Not after Jason Roberts’ goal at Arsenal to send latics to the Carling Cup Final, nor after Charles N’Zogbia’s injury time winner also against Arsenal last season have I seen celebrations to even come close to those on Sunday.

When you talk about Wigan Athletic you’re talking about a prizefighter that’s truly unique in its never-say-die attitude. They broke the mould when they made this prizefighter. It just does not know when it’s beaten. Even when it’s firmly down on its backside, with the third fist about to hit the canvas, it somehow finds something from somewhere to get up, dust itself down and finish the job off.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s what makes being a Wigan Athletic fan truly special. I see other teams fighting like mad to stay up, but are any capable of the sort of courage we showed on Sunday? I don’t really think so. There’s just something about this football club that means it’s always capable of the impossible, the unthinkable. We won’t always pull it off (we’d be Champions of Europe if we did) but somehow when we really need it most we manage to pull it out of the bag.

Roberto Martinez summed it up in a direct address to the fans in the supporters bar after the game. “Sorry we put you through it today but we like to do things our way, the latics way!” Having a man in charge that knows exactly what this football club and its supporters are all about is a big reason why I think this club is going places and is as capable of the unthinkable as it’s ever been before.

And so it’s on to Stoke. A draw could be enough. We could even lose and stay up on goal difference (again!) if the likes of Birmingham and Blackpool suffer heavier defeats than we do. That really would be remarkable given our goal difference was -10 after the first two games of the season. Just like four years ago at Sheffield united, you wouldn’t bet against latics doing it the hard way, whatever that hard way is.

I wrote on Twitter on Sunday night: “I don’t know who writes Wigan Athletic’s scripts but they ought to be nominated for an Oscar” Here’s hoping that’s the feeling on Sunday evening. It’s like living within a real-life Rocky film. We’re in the final round, we’re exhausted, we're battered, we’re bruised, but somewhere within those last closing moments you feel we’ve got it in us to deliver one final, telling blow.

Progress with unity

I can’t go without showing you a couple of videos from Sunday. The first is, of course, the highlights from an unbelievable match. The second is how Sky Sports News covered the game. It's over 11 minutes long so if you can't watch it all makes sure you watch from about 8 minutes in. I really feel it sums up Sunday’s events and the emotions attached superbly well.

No one likes us, we don't care

Well this week saw yet another member of the national media take a huge swipe at little Wigan Athletic. This time it was the turn of Mick Dennis. It seems Wigan only getting 17,000 through the turnstiles each week just isn’t good enough and therefore the Championship beckons.

Funny that, because last time I checked the rule book there was no mention of teams not being able to compete in any given league based on how many attend their matches. The FA must have omitted that one, how foolish of them.

I think the point really is that for years our club has over-achieved beyond the wildest dreams of anyone connected with Wigan Athletic. For a short time the press and the majority of outsiders jumped on our bandwagon and were heaping praise on our achievement of moving through the leagues so quickly and reaching the very top.

However, the tables appear to have turned. Those people don’t want to praise us now. They don’t want to say how well were doing or “that’s how a football club should be run.” They want to take every possible little swipe at us that they can. Their love for our club has turned to hate. The very fact there’s only one thing they can ever criticise us for is our attendances makes me smile, I’m sorry to say. It really is a sad state of affairs.

If you were to ask me right now which sets of supporters have given grief to me personally over the last few weeks and months I think you’ll quickly see a pattern emerging. Nottingham Forest, Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Coventry City and, most recently, Norwich City (Mick Dennis’ team), to name but a few. (Even Wigan Warriors fans are having a go and they get less through the turnstiles than we do!)

Now can you detect the pattern? Yes, they have all been Premier League clubs in their day and most have been some sort of force in Europe too. The trouble is, while Wigan have been lauding it up in the Premier League, their respective clubs have been struggling a division (or two divisions, in some cases) below us.

What’s the reason for the barrage of abuse? The answer, quite simply, is jealousy. Their clubs have been run so poorly while we’ve been working our way to our current position. Just because they get more through the turnstiles in their respective divisions than Wigan Athletic do in the top flight, that makes it alright to try and give the club and its loyal supporters a bad name.

When they dish out their criticism there’s not thought to the fact there’s little over 80,000 people in our town. No thought to the fact we’ve got 7 other Premier League clubs within a stones throw of our ground. No thought to the fact we’ve spent most of our history in non-league football. No thought to that fact we were getting just 1,800 through the turnstiles only 16 years ago. No thought to the fact that we’ve not got generations of supporters to call upon now we’re in the big time. The list goes on.

It’s wrong. What Wigan Athletic have achieved in the past 15 years is something few clubs will ever achieve in their entire history. It’s something that I, for one, am immensely proud of and, even if we do suffer from the dreaded ‘R’ word at the end of the season, we can always look back fondly at what we achieved, which is more than can be said of the aforementioned clubs and their under-achievements.

We’ll never be bitter and twisted about what we once had. We’ll always be grateful for what we had and respect that we couldn’t punch above our weight forever. We’ll always know it’s not that long ago we were in the bottom division and we’re not blinkered enough to think we have a divine right to be in the upper echelons of English football forever.

More importantly, we’ll always be here. It doesn’t matter what league we’re in, whether we get 1,700 or 17,000 through the gates, whether we’ve got a millionaire backer or go back to the days of collection buckets outside the turnstiles. There’ll always be a Wigan Athletic.

No one likes us, we don’t care.

Progress With Unity

It’s a forgotten motto these days since the powers that be at Wigan Athletic opted for a change of club crest, but “progress with unity” is certainly a phrase that still applies to the club. Saturday’s win at Blackpool highlighted something to me that makes me immensely proud to be a Wigan Athletic fan.

We may not be Barcelona on the pitch, or Manchester United and their forty-three billion fans off it, but what we are is a club which is together and has a never-say-die attitude that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. When times are tough, when our backs are firmly against the wall, we always come out fighting, we always have done and we always will.

You can go right back to the 70’s when the club were fighting a constant battle to gain election to the Football League and failing time after time, the club never gave up and eventually it paid off. It seems that attitude has been instilled in the club ever since and is there for all to see.

There was such a good feeling amongst the latics fans at Bloomfield Road on Saturday, it was almost like we knew we were there to do a job and we WERE going to do it. Yes there were nerves, yes there was anxiety, but every single latics fan at the game on Saturday was positive, sang their hearts out and showed great support for their beloved team.

People under-estimate how important fans can be to a team but I really do think the fans made a huge difference on Saturday. Blackpool’s fans were clearly nervous and subdued, which their team mirrored. Our fans were vocal and up for the fight, and it was mirrored in our team.

Not since ‘that’ day at Sheffield United have I seen a group of supporters turn up so desperate to get three points and climb the table. There was no negativity, no one on anyone’s back (like the odd idiot at home games), just everyone together fighting for the cause.

Latics fans helped get the team through that day in Sheffield and we did it again on Saturday. The common denominator here I feel is that the games I’m talking about are away from home. At home games there’s a small amount of negativity coming from small sections of each stand. It seems to get to the players at times and they struggle to focus properly on the job at hand.

Every club has it, unrealistic supporters who want more from their team than they’re capable of, but I just wish those negative idiots were at Blackpool at the weekend to see what true support is all about.

It’s for this reason I feel we’ve got chances of picking up more points on the road this season and retaining our Premier League status. We’ve got another away game this coming weekend at Sunderland and three points there will leave us so close to survival you could almost touch it!

Aston Villa away in a few weeks is another game to whet the appetite, not least because in six seasons in the top flight we’ve never actually lost there (3 wins, 2 draws!) Then we go to Stoke on the final day where I hope to God we don’t have another Sheffield United situation on our hands.

But, the thing is, so what if we do need to win at Stoke to stay up? There’s not another club in the Premier League that could go into such a game with backing like we latics fans give to OUR team. It’s the main benefit of being such a small club, in my eyes. We’ve got forty-three billion less fans than Manchester United, but those that we have got are as vocal, passionate and devoted as ANY other. We are actually a part of OUR club, we’re not just there to fund ridiculous wages and transfer fees, we actually make OUR club what it is.

I actually turn up every week and feel like I’m needed, like me being there makes a difference. That’s always been the case and I dare say others feel the same. It’s what being a supporter of a small, family club is all about. You can’t help but feel a part of it. I’m not sure there’s another club around where this applies as much as it does at Wigan Athletic, where the fans drive the club forward.

This season I bought a season ticket for my 15 year-old brother. In previous seasons he’s just come along when I can afford to take him or when a mate can’t go and he has their season ticket. It’s taken him one season to be completely hooked on the drug that is Wigan Athletic. He’s as obsessed with the club as I am, this despite latics winning only 7 of 33 games so far this season. He’s not there craving title success, he’s not there craving trophies, he’s there to support his local club and actually be part of that club. In one season that’s exactly how he feels.

Manchester United, on the other hand, are driven forward purely by the fact they’ve got a vast number of ‘supporters’ (and I use that term loosely for some of them, not all) who pay stupid sums of money for season tickets, match tickets and merchandise, which funds the bank balances of footballers who I’m not sure really appreciate what it means to the fans like is the case at Wigan Athletic.

I’m proud of the fact that we’re a small club, with a ‘small’ fan base, and players who must be among the lowest paid in the Premier League. I don’t know what the likes of James McCarthy earns but I’d guess it’s about one tenth of the wages of Michael Carrick, and McCarthy is worth ten of what Carrick is worth for his sheer determination to go out and give 100% for the jersey.

I could go on but I just wanted to put down some thoughts post Blackpool because it was one of the best days I’ve had in my time as a latics fan. Not because of the result, not because of the performance, but because it showed me that OUR club is still what it was and always has been. A club that is united, ALL pushing in the same direction and never gives up. A club with first class supporters who, despite getting flack every single day for the size of their crowds, still turn up, still show their pride to be a Wigan Athletic fan and, ultimately, love the fact that no matter how much stick we get, we give it all back by simply being here. Six seasons and counting…

PROGRESS WITH UNITY

Before I finish I must add this video to this article. It was filmed by a B**ton Wanderers fan in the away end with his Wigan Athletic mad wife, but it really sums up the reaction when Hugo’s goal went in and how much it meant.

Why England Will Win the Ashes

This winter sees the England cricket team go down under to defend the Ashes that they won back on home soil only last year. However, they’ve failed to come back from Australia with the treasured urn in almost a quarter of a century.

So, the question is, why should English cricket fans be getting so excited about this tour? It’s only four years since England suffered a 5-0 whitewash in Australia when they supposedly had their best squad and best chance of success in decades.

This time it really is different though. Since Andy Flower replaced Duncan Fletcher as coach in 2007 England have made nothing but forward strides in all three forms of the game. In that period Australia have only gone backwards. In fact for the first time in living memory England go to Australia while actually sitting above their Ashes rivals in the ICC World rankings.

Belief

For me, half the battle in beating the Aussies on home soil is actually believing that you can beat them. In the last Ashes series in Australia, England dominated the 2nd test match in Adelaide, with a 310-run partnership between Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen putting the visitors into a real position of strength. However, England failed to do their jobs in the second innings and lost the test match. This, for me, was largely due to the fact that they lacked the bottle and belief to complete the job.

With this current set of players it’s a different story. Andrew Strauss as a leader has done a truly remarkable job and Andy Flower has instilled a belief into his players that they can beat whatever is put in front of them. There’s no sterner test of those characteristics that a trip down under.

It’s often about which individual players step up to the plate and put in the performances that’s needed. Indeed, England’s last Ashes success away from home was largely down to the performances of Chris Broad and Ian Botham. So, who should England look to for inspiration this time around?

James Anderson has been England’s number one strike bowler for some time now. However, I really don’t believe he will be the one to do the damage. As a bowler that relies on favourable, swinging conditions, Australia probably isn’t a place where he can shine as a bowler.

I’m really excited about Steven Finn. The more I see him, the more he reminds me of Glenn McGrath. He’s a tall, ‘bang it in’ sort of bowler who bowls a consistent line and length, frustrating batsmen and taking wickets. We’ve not seen much of him in England colours so far but I’d say he’s a certainty to play all five tests and he’s my tip to be England’s leading wicket taker.

Quality in every department

England are much stronger in the spin department this time around. They’re stronger than their last visit to Australia and for the first time in my lifetime I can say England have far better spin options than their opponents. While Graeme Swann doesn’t have the incredible skills and variations of a Shane Warne, what he does have is a superb cricketing brain and the ability to outthink the opposition. This is where he picks up most of his wickets and it’s why he’ll be England’s second top wicket taker in this series, with Stuart Broad close behind him in third.

From a batting point of view I really do think the stage is set for Kevin Pietersen to announce himself in the test match arena once again. He’s had a really poor year by his standards but class is permanent. He’s a big game player and in these 5 test matches I’m convinced he will return to form, holding England’s innings’ together and ending the series as England’s top run scorer.

Andrew Strauss has plenty on his plate as captain in trying to keep hold of the urn, but expect him to be in the runs. Not least because he too is a class act at the top of the England order, but because I simply don’t think Australia have the bowlers to cause damage at the start of England’s innings’.

As for Australia, man for man they clearly had the better squad four years ago. However, this time things look a little different. Several players have retired since then, such as Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Brett Lee, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. The Aussie’s current bowling attack looks a little threadbare without the latter three and taking 20 England wickets will prove difficult.

Lacking experience

The loss of so many players hasn’t just made them weaker in terms of ability, they’re also badly lacking in players with Ashes experience. This is a big problem for Australia and it’s a big part of why I don’t think they’ll be able to stop England taking the urn home with them.

Captaincy is key and while doubts have surfaced over Ricky Ponting’s ability as captain in the last couple of years, Andrew Strauss’ reputation as a captain has done nothing but rise.

Of course it goes without saying that England need everyone fit and with as few off the field distractions as possible if they’re to achieve their goals. During the 2002/03 Ashes tour England lost Simon Jones, who ruptured knee ligaments in the field on the first morning of the first test.

During the last tour down under England player the entire series without their captain, Michael Vaughan, who was missing with a knee injury. Andrew Flintoff stepped into the role but it never really worked, and the extra responsibility on his shoulders seemed to affect his form with bat and ball too.

Furthermore, frontline spinner Ashley Giles was forced to return home to be with his ill wife. England really could do without these unhelpful events causing problems this time around.

England have all the key ingredients to make this series a success. They’ve got great players, players better than their opponents. An inspirational leader on the pitch in Andrew Strauss and a knowledgeable coach off the field in Andy Flower, who has instilled a belief into his players that they can win an Ashes series down under.

Series Prediction: Australia 1, England 3

Come on England – make the nation proud again and bring back those Ashes to where they belong!